There’s a certain tendency among the Nigerian elite whose only formula for relevance is hammering on our ethnic and religious fault lines. For them no disaster or tragedy is too grievous to be exploited for diabolical ends.
No surprise therefore that the killing by the army in Tudun Biri, Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State, of over 120 innocent citizens in a drone attack, has seen them crawling out of the woodwork in their numbers.
This latest incident has triggered widespread anger and soul-searching given that it’s not the first. Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno South Senatorial District at the National Assembly, says they have happened 16 times with a death toll of 485.
In any time or clime people would demand answers for such a calamity. The Nigeria Army insists the bombing was not intentional. While many are inclined to believe them given that there’s no logical reason why villagers in some remote part of Kaduna State would be deliberately targeted for elimination, there’s a sense of frustration that the military haven’t learnt any lessons from past incidents.
This could be down to the fact that consequences were non-existent. Who was held to account? What was the punishment? The establishment just went its merry way, probably arguing that these things happen.
In some countries heads would roll because of the monumental embarrassment and shock this has caused to the system. We may yet see people pay a price for incompetence or errors of judgement given that President Bola Tinubu has vowed to punish those found culpable.
While reasonable demands for answers keep pouring in, we are also seeing an orchestrated effort by the usual suspects to fill the void with insane and dangerous conspiracy theories that can destabilise the country unless there’s pushback.
For instance, controversial cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has categorically stated that the bombing wasn’t an error. Delivering his weekly sermon at the Sultan Bello Mosque, Kaduna, he argued that if the first bomb dropped on the people was a mistake, the second that targeted those evacuating the bodies 30 minutes later – as claimed by the villagers – couldn’t be described as such.
He said: “I kept telling you not to invite people who see war as a solution but people refused to listen. Here it’s now. War is never a joke because it affects everybody. I warned you on this but you keep saying they should be killed.
“It’s you that will be killed. That bomb was meant to target the families of some people so as to kill their children and wives.”
His suggestion is that victims were targeted because of who they were – ordinary Muslims out on a religious procession. The allegation that the bombing had sinister religious or ethnic undertones is a weighty one to make – especially when not backed up by any evidence other than one’s extreme assumptions.
Trotting out the same sectarian drivel, was former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof. Usman Yusuf, who found a way to link the tragedy to the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, military postings and even fallout from the coup in Niger Republic.
In an interview on Arise TV, he argued that the President and Vice President were both Muslims, yet Muslims in the North were still being killed.
He stated: “Our people in the North are saying you are killing Muslims, inflicting a lot more pain on Muslims. You closed the borders along all the seven Northern states because you want to go to war with Niger. You are inflicting pain. Look at the military hierarchy, people are being mischievous. Look at the operational military hierarchy and look at their religion. The military needs to be very careful and start doing damage control fast.’’
The professor’s outburst suggests that in the last eight years when Muhammadu Buhari – a Muslim was president – Muslims were not killed in conflict situations across the North, or that borders in different parts of the country were not shut. In fact, the point was made that while they were firmly closed down South, up North they were only so in name.
Another contributor to the debate, a Sokoto-based Islamic teacher, Sheikh Muhammad Yabo, bemoaned the fact that error bombings happened only in the North, without a single one occurring down South. Wow! I know of quota and federal character requirements in our statutes, but I wasn’t aware they also applied to human tragedies.
One of the more interesting interventions was from a former Special Assistant on Digital Communications to Buhari, Bashir Ahmad. He posted this on his X handle: “Haba! You can’t kill 126 innocent souls – a hundred and twenty-six civilians, and just call it a mistake. I can’t even remember a time when the troops killed such a number of terrorists anywhere in this country at once.”
The internet never forgets they say. So people swiftly reminded him of his tweet dated January 18, 2017 in which he announced: “A presidential delegation led by COS, Abba Kyari, will today visit Rann, Borno, where NAF accidently bombed a civilian community yesterday.”
That error air strike in a town hosting thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) left 126 dead – among them aid workers and refugees. One estimate by Médecins Sans Frontières put the toll at 170, others say as many as 236 died.
Aside foreign groups like Human Rights Watch and the like, not many remember vociferous cries of condemnation from those who are now vocally condemning “the killing of Northerners.”
One of the biggest tragedies to have befallen Nigeria is the mismanagement of the Boko Haram sect in its infancy, and the subsequent killing of its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, in murky circumstances. Those actions laid the foundation for the transformation of a local irritant into an insurgency that has ravaged the Northeast and destroyed its economy in the last decade. The bungling was pulled off by an administration headed by a Northerner, Umaru Yar’Adua.
The violence by Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) is estimated to have killed more than 35,000 people between 2009 and 2020. But in a 2021 report, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), put the total number of those killed at nearly 350,000 – ten times higher.
All of these losses were incurred in the North. Some of those fatalities occurred when suicide bombers deliberately targeted mosques. Not much was heard from Gumi and his fellow regional and religious champions about the atrocities. It’s almost like they are saying: ‘it is okay when we are in charge and killing ourselves, but not so when someone else is calling the shots.’
That tells me their bitter, hypocritical venting is driven more by petty grievances over loss of privilege and advantage than genuine compassion for the victims of Tudun Biri.
While we are asking how much longer the military can continue making these avoidable errors, we should also be querying how long the country can continue to humour ethnic and religious extremists whose only agenda is to further divide us.
When Gumi is not attacking President Tinubu for appointing Nyesom Wike – a Southerner and Christian – Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister (as if the position was exclusively reserved for his region), he’s making the case for coddling of bandits in the Northwest who think nothing of slaughtering scores of hapless villagers, or setting their dwellings ablaze for failing to pay protection levies.
His extreme and inflammatory rhetoric has gone on for long enough. It’s time more people said to him: enough is enough.
Thankfully, the greater percentage of the elite don’t subscribe to his ideas. Some of them have taken practical steps to show compassion to the victims. Senators have donated their December salaries. The Northern Caucus of the House of Representatives, many individuals and groups have committed to giving millions to the devastated community. What has Gumi and his chorus line done for the people he claims to love so much beyond mischievous fault-finding?
